it takes balls to knit!

Well, another Vogue Knitting Live has been had, and it’s great to see that even though it was a new venue, this event keeps getting better and better. This last VKL was in Bellevue, WA – just minutes from Seattle -  at the Meydenbauer Center. The venue was great, and the event was even better.

As usual, there were lots of instructors teaching everything from casting on and learning to knit, to advanced design techniques that you could incorporate into your next project. The Marketplace was great with a lot of exhibitors – some of the usual suspects and some new ones. Personally I had a great time as I made some new friends and even though I’m north of the border, they’re fairly “local” to me, which means knitting road trips!

I have a few things that I want to take an entire post to write about (and I will in the next little bit), but I’ll still mention a few of the highlights. Addi had a fastest knitter of the Northwest competition. Liisa eventually won the showdown during the Gala dinner event, but the fastest qualifier (the 3 fastest had a showdown) did a blazing 192 stitches in 3 minutes. I was 4th (I’ll get it next year) with 173! Drat, but not bad for not training and having to use 4mm needles.

Suzanne Tidwell had a fantastic display of her Fiber Art. It goes beyond yarn bombing and takes knitting art to a whole new level. There was also an interactive display where anyone and everyone was encouraged to help with a display was was set up. You can see Suzanne’s work here – Fiber Art.

Probably the most astounding display was Caro Milne’s Knitted Glass. I’ll be doing an entire post on this later, but yes, she actually knits with glass. Here’s a picture and if you click on it it will take you to her website – you should definitely check it out!

One of my favorite new friends is Katie Musante with High Desert Fiberworks. Katie specializes in high quality German Angora by itself and spun with select fibers. I got a sample of Polar Buns Worsted in white which is screaming at me to make a set of hand warmers! it’s 80% angora and 20% cormo wool, which makes it ultra soft yet very resilient. I’ll include pictures of the completed project soon with a full post about this amazing lady and her rabbits!

When I went to VKL in Chicago, I met Pam and her partner from Indian Lake Artisans. They are the makers of custom, hand crafted, hexagonal needles. I was very interested in the needles but there wasn’t a circular one with a long enough shaft for my hands. This time I have ordered a pair of 4.5mm, 40″ circulars with a 6″ shaft. As soon as I have them I’ll do a report on them, but you should check out their website in the meantime. While the shorter ones weren’t ideal for me, they were still very nice to work with and everyone trying them was pleased. They also make straight needles too. Here’s a little video explaining the concept and the materials used!

Aside from these highlights, there was also the Fashion Shows from Skacel and Vogue Knitting, Cascade Yarns had their 220 falling from the sky in their yarn drop, Trisha Malcolm hosted 2 discussion panels on knitting as your business, and there were many, many more.

I’ll do another highlight post and also feature some of these mentioned in future posts, but there was more to see than I can sum up in one post. I’m hoping that this show was successful for everyone(and from what I heard from vendors it was) that Vogue will want to come back next year! And maybe I’ll get another crack at the fastest needles contest!

Hugzzz